A multi-generational Californian Road Trip
San Francisco:
The baseball game was fantastic and we’d recommend it to anyone for a taste of the USA! As a tip, I’d say do buy the cheapest tickets as once we were inside the arena, it did seem that you could move seats without any problem once the game was underway. Also, don’t rush to get there on time – it was half empty when the game started and full by the time we left.
The Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf Hotel we stayed at was fine, clean and safe but no personal service. I wouldn’t suggest staying in Fisherman’s Wharf particularly - stay around Union Square, in the Italian district or in the Chinese district.
We took a city tour on Hornblower Classic Cable Cars and could hugely recommend it if you’re there for a short time. Whipped through all the districts, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, through the parks, saw the hippies at Haight Ashbury, the Victorian houses, dramatic descent down Nob Hill, along the seafront all in 2 hours with great commentary from amusing hosts.
Half Moon Bay:
We drove down the coast from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay. There seems to be two parts to that town – the charming Main Street which is slightly inland but leads to a lovely beach, and then a great harbour area about two miles away. I’d recommend a day spent mooching and lunching in Main Street then an evening spent at The Oceano Hotel at Half Moon Bay Harbor. There are several charming bars and restaurants around the harbour for supper.
Move on the next day, down the beautiful coast road (Highway 1) until you see signs for La Honda. This is a town up in the mountains and if you head for this area then on to the Redwood Basin it’s a fabulous drive that takes about 3 hours through beautiful scenery, giant Redwoods, through mountain passes and creek roads. Head for Boulder Creek which is a fabulous old fashioned town that looks like something from a western movie and even has a Sherriff’s Office on the high street. Stay the night around here, either in the town or there seems to be lots of camping/hiking/lodge sort of places around.
Carmel by the Sea:
There’s a great walk to know about that shows you the beautiful shoreline, fabulous houses and architecture and the Mission. If you head down toward the beach, there’s a road off to the left called Scenic Road (appropriately). Probably about 2 miles in a loop back to the town centre. We found a fantastic roof top bar with great food, good service and fires to sit around, called Vesuvio in the centre of Carmel.
The highlight for us on this part of the trip was the Bull Riding Event at Salinas which Melissa managed to track down for us. FANTASTIC! We’d recommend it to anyone, if dates tie up. Great atmosphere, great Margaritas, great people watching and crazy sport. We also thoroughly enjoys A.W. Shucks seafood, oysters, great service, buzzy bar with top atmosphere.
Santa Barbara:
The Harbor View Inn was perfectly positioned for strolling along the beach road, with the pier 5 minutes in one direction and the harbour 5 minutes in the other. There’s an electric trolley that you can hop onto for 50 cents that takes you from the beach up State Street (the main street in the city). There's the courthouse and clock tower (ask the trolley driver when to get off) which was interesting, beautiful and take the lift up the clock tower for an incredible view of the whole city. State Street is busy and buzzy, full of high street names but nowhere near as charming as the Funk Zone which is an area about 4 blocks square, just off Main Street and full of independent bars and restaurants - the Lark is a great bar with inside/outside dining and worth finding. The best ice cream in California is to be had at McConnells in Main Street. Get a water taxi from the harbour across to the pier. Then rent a bike and cycle along the beach road.
Next time I'd avoid driving the coast road through LA, however we passed some great looking places and would have happily stayed a night or two in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and best of all, Laguna Beach.
San Diego:
A MASSIVE city made up of several different districts. We stayed in Pacific Beach and I think in hindsight we might have opted for La Jolla, which was very upmarket, safe, charming with a beach full of seals and sea lions you could swim with, fantastic top end restaurants on the cliff to watch the sunset from and loads of very fancy shops. Pacific Beach where we stayed was lovely - the beach was incredible and we rented body boards; the sea was a perfect temperature, white sand, no big drop away so perfect for holiday makers and the beach was packed with them! More a surfer area than sophistication here.
Our hotel, Pacific Terrace, was fantastic – in a great position but most of all really great staff who couldn’t do enough for us to make our stay perfect.
Then there seemed to be more of a hippy beach at Ocean then a really posh area on Comodoro Island with a swanky old fashioned hotel. We didn’t have time to get to the Gaslight District which apparently is buzzing with bars and clubs but if we were there for longer I would definitely have visited that area plus done a city tour, visited the world famous zoo, had brunch or cocktails at the Comodoro Island Hotel. There was a long pier opposite our hotel and it looked like you could rent large beach huts along it that you could sleep in – that looked fun.
In hindsight, we should have had a night less in Carmel and a night more in San Diego, or extended both slightly and made more of a comfortable route for that last leg of the journey. However, a thoroughly enjoyable trip which we would recommend for others to enjoy - what an amazing place!
TOP TIPS:
- Arrive at Pier 39 by 8am, get coffee and freshly baked pastries from the amazing Boudins bakery on the pier then sit and watch the sea lions before the crowds appear
- There are very few taxis around, everyone uses Uber so download the app before you go
- San Diego airport is tiny so don’t expect shopping or dining of any high standard